161 replies to this topic

[Ethel]

The number plates are irrelevent, the Mini could have been an uninsured death trap held together by sticky tape and his mate would still be liable if he caused the damage. Canceling your insurance: though possibly not the best move, depending on how much you got back compared to what you'd have got back in a month or so's time, is also largely irrelevent if it's your mate's insurers who will have to dip in to their pockets.

I assume you informed yours about the bump when you cancelled, your mate is required to tell his, even if he doesn't claim. Make sure he does, if he doesn't disclose a material fact to them he'd be in much deeper do dah if they find out - this is your leverage. - if you feel uncomfortable laying it on the line for him, just tell him he was named as the other party when your dad spoke to your insurers and, as a mate, you suggest he tells his before they find out from elsewhere.

I trust your dad didn't sign any sort of agreement over the £500? Whether it matters or not depends on the wording, if you're over 18 and who the "owner" of your car is.

My guess is your dad has got cold feet over fronting your insurance, if he is, and following the bump, thinks he'd be happier to see you off the road rather than splattered along it.

If it ever ended up in court and you had to admit you knew he was licking the chrome off your back bumper when you braked suddenly, then I think you could expect some of the blame would be, rightly, attributed to you.

The criminal law will always put the onus on the driver who drove in to the other party as it encourages us all to keep a safer distance. The Civil law likes to spread the cost to encourage us all to be more careful and give them less work (it's only concerned with sorting out the mess after the event). Of course it rarely works out that way, as it's much easier to prove who hit who than what happened in the seconds before.

[Naif_Wolves]

Right, I'm studying law at the moment. Out of the millions of cases I've seen and learnt about drivers, not once has someone who's been rear-ended ever been at fault.
Stop being a melon, ring the insurance company.
Punch your dad and punch your mate, maybe they'll get a bit of sense.
I've been passed a month and if a mate of mine did this, I'd put it straight through their insurance, no matter who it was.
His insurance won't be £500 more than it is now if he claims, probably be about the same as it has been for his first year.
Give him the money back and ring his insurance NOW. If they say it's too late to claim, whinge, moan and annoy the hell out of any person who answers the phone until the decide to do something about it.
As others have said, you've been taken for a complete mug.

[CharlieBrown]

Guys regardless of the situation please can your refrain from throwing personal insults at the chap.

The forum is here to help mini enthusiasts not to insult them.

[techno-steve]

ok so im scared this might happen to me, some of my mates are idiots

so serius question have u decided what to do yet?


and good luck with it all

[captainjack15]

ok so im scared this might happen to me, some of my mates are idiots

Perhaps you shouldn't hang around people that going to drive like idiots??

[danrock101]

A body repair guy is coming to have a look tomorrow, so I will see what he says about the damage

I'll probably end up buying a cheap shell or somthing because I fancy doing it, it would be fun and I would probably have parts left over to sell, so it wouldn't leave me out of pocket + i've had a bit of fun, and learn a lesson

Edited by danrock101, 14 May 2009 - 03:58 PM.

[che]

A body repair guy is coming to have a look tomorrow, so I will see what he says about the damage

I'll probably end up buying a cheap shell or somthing because I fancy doing it, it would be fun and I would probably have parts left over to sell, so it wouldn't leave me out of pocket + i've had a bit of fun, and learn a lesson

You have been offered some extremely wise advice from a lot of people trying to help you.

Please don't kid yourself and settle for a cheap shell etc, because you fancy doing it - own up, you don't fancy doing it and just want to stay friends with this so called mate. Sorry to sound so blunt but this is how I'm reading it!

You don't want to look back in a few years time and say, what a idiot I was, why didn't I listen.

I do hope you have a change of mind, go through the insurance etc etc - enough said!

[minidan]

i wont repeat whats been said 100 times but whatever you do DONT let that lovely mini get scrapped/stripped. at the worst at least sell it to someone who will fix it...

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

dont worry im on his case and his personal mini mechanic i wont let that car get scrapped if i need to take it home on the roof of mine hahahhaha

im gonna help dan either way but the easiest option is to buy a rolling shell and swap the rolling chassis and engine over the body repairs would require half the car in bits

[minidan]

so your 're-shelling it' ??

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

this is a distinct possiblity

[monster_mini]

nooooooo

i cant believe this has happend,

whats happening with going to nuremburg now ??

nick

[Alexanderx]

A body repair guy is coming to have a look tomorrow, so I will see what he says about the damage

I'll probably end up buying a cheap shell or somthing because I fancy doing it, it would be fun and I would probably have parts left over to sell, so it wouldn't leave me out of pocket + i've had a bit of fun, and learn a lesson

glad u've ended up taking it quite well dude,
never a nice situation. But if anything like this happens again
go through the insurance and get some one like this body specialist to look at it and asess the damage.
good luck with doing it up.

[dave21478]

FAIL.

So you are going to take the guys £500, buy another shell, then spend God-knows how much more money and time to end up with a road-going car several weeks/months from now? Leaving you car-less in the meantime and financially out of pocket by the time its finished?

Great idea.


The only logical reason I can see behind doing this and not doing things properly, is that here is something seriously amiss with your insurance, or more likely, your mates insurance. He does have insurance doesnt he? undisclosed mods maybe? Perhaps its in his grannies name?

...whatever. Good luck dude. I suspect you will need it.

[roga]

Blimey, don't often post here but reading this thread has been an absolutely fascinating, and painful, read!

I'm afraid I work with kids and have my own so I tend to take the attitude that if someone, adults or juves, lacks the wit to take advice after asking for it, and getting so much agreement on said advice, then the best thing to do is just give up and let 'em learn their own lessons the hard way.

Looks like one lesson has happened but I'm not convinced anything has been learnt and the next lesson it seems is going to have something to do with the perils of dismantling a car with the best intentions in the world and then realising that the boxes of bits you've ended up with are a little more daunting and complicated, and gonna be a lot more work than originally anticipated - been there done that! Hopefully though the help of other people might mitigate this but my goodness I think there's still a strong chance of this formerly proud classic ending up as scrap and frankly that's (and I'm choosing my words carefully so as not to get into trouble) bad and could have been avoided with a simple phone call!

Not sure I'm looking forward to reading this developing 'car crash' (in all senses of the word) but in a voyeuristic sort of way I'll be looking in to have a read

Edited by roga, 14 May 2009 - 09:56 PM.